Modern Mechanix

What’s New (Jul, 1966)

2009-11-02T16:25:54Z

What’s New

TOGETHERNESS by the tubful is the latest in bathroom decor. Twin tubs were designed by Gerald and Phyllis Yellin, a Manhasset N. Y. couple who believe that cleanliness is being next to your spouse.

MUSIC typewriter has 46 characters and can copy almost any kind of musical notation. Photo shows inventor Lily Pavey of Britain using the Imperial Pavey Musigraph.

STICK-ON bullet holes that lend air of intrigue to the most prosaic buggy are on the market in England. Holes for both the glass and body panels are available.

MARKET BAG is inflatable for use as seat cushion or headrest Handy ait beach. for long-distance travel, for toting or for just loafing.

DEPTH gauge for tire treads tells you when tire is becoming too smooth to be safe. If gauge reads less than 2mm, new tire is advised.

GEOCHRON, developed by W. German teacher Tom Gottberg, tells the time in all major cities of the world. The expected price is about $25.

TEN ft tires built by B. F. Goodrich for earth mover and scraper transmit nearly a million pounds of tractive force. Tire is tubeless, 5 ft. wide and weighs 6,000 lbs.

WEST COAST kids have taken to the king-size sissy bar as a handy place to mount a headrest or hang an ornament Price is $3.50.

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Weather Will NEVER Wear Them Out (Feb, 1929)

2009-10-30T15:51:50Z

“We guarantee our shingles will last longer than you will!”

Weather Will NEVER Wear Them Out

J-M ASBESTOS SHINGLES ARE EVERLASTING AND ECONOMICAL

YOU can truthfully call your roof everlasting if it is made of Johns-Manville Rigid Asbestos Shingles. Unburnable Asbestos and Portland Cement are blended under terrific pressure into rigid monolithic stone shingles.

These sturdy Shingles can never wear out—they never burn, rot, rust or warp, and their beautiful colors are as lasting as Asbestos itself.

Tests Prove Age Adds StrengthThe only effect of weather on J-M Asbestos Shingles is to make them harder and stronger. Actual tests such as those recently made by the Southern Testing Laboratories at Jacksonville, Florida, prove that 16-year-old J-M Asbestos Shingles are actually 10% stronger today than when they were laid on the roof!

Fireproof Beauty for All TimeThe right roof in color, texture and design will add enduring charm to any home. The wrong roof mars its beauty and decreases its value.

The wide range of colors, styles and textures offered by J-M Asbestos Shingles have been designed under the direction of a committee of prominent architects to insure an amazing number of color combinations, all in good taste, to meet the diverse demands of any type of house and every budget.

Write for a Free EstimateLet us show you how little it will cost to roof your house for the last time with J-M Asbestos Shingles.

Just fill out the coupon and mail it to the nearest office listed below— our local representative will gladly make a free inspection of your roof and furnish a free estimate to you without obligation.

Send for the New Book of Roofs — in it you will find the right roof for your home.

Johns -Manville

RIGID ASBESTOS SHINGLES

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No Shrink- No Spot (Apr, 1947)

2009-10-30T15:50:32Z

No Shrink- No Spot

A DISTANT cousin of the sulfa drugs, melamine, is being used to “cure” some of the serious “ailments” of textiles.

Its most striking use is in a resin which, applied to woolens, solves the age-old problem of shrinking and matting in water.

In another form, melamine resins can be used to impregnate acetate rayons and cottons to make them spot resistant. Ink, coffee or other staining liquids, spilled on clothes made from treated fabrics, can be washed off with a damp cloth or a glassful of water.

Melamine was first developed in 1834 but was forgotten until a few years ago. It went to war in a resin applied to blankets, sleeping bag linings, socks, and insect netting. But it is in its peacetime application to textiles that melamine promises its widest use.

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Love that Quick-Wedge (Apr, 1951)

2009-10-30T15:50:15Z

Pardon me, but do you have any comically large screwdrivers in stock?

Love that Quick-Wedge

- I use it instead of a conventional screwdriver!

Quick-Wedge SCREW-HOLDING SCREWDRIVER

unconditionally guaranteed

ASK FOR IT AT YOUR DEALER

KEDMAN CO. • 233 SO 5th WEST • SALT LAKE CITY 1, UTAH

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SEVEN WAYS TO GET A RAISE! (Jun, 1967)

2009-10-30T15:53:48Z

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SEVEN WAYS TO GET A RAISE!

By James Berry

YOU’D like a raise. But how can you get one? Pay boosts depend on your boss’ decision. But helping him make that decision—in your favor—is often up to you.

Getting a raise merely because you deserve it is not only very rare, it is Dullsville. Where’s the fun? Life is a game when you know you’re worth more than you’re getting and you’re taking steps to get what you’re worth. Look at it that way—and remember that in nearly every job you must take steps to get as much as you deserve.

Here are the ways to go about it. You may use one or more or all of these tactics, singly or in sequence, but if you ever get the raise the chances are you will use at least one of them.

1. Know what the boss wants. Some guys knock themselves out for years and all they do is bug the guy they’re working for because they don’t give him what he wants. Jim Cassett, a marketing analyst in an ad agency, put in hours of overtime each week. The boss never mentioned it. One day Jim heard the big boy speak kindly about the neatness of someone else’s report. Jim quit working overtime. He worked on making the reports neat and clear. Within three weeks the boss was patting him on the back; within four months he was working on a hotter account—with a $10-a-week raise.

It’s easier to know what the boss wants when you’re in close contact, harder when you work for a big firm, with straw bosses, possibly in trouble themselves, between you and the real Leader.

In any company you must decide which boss to try to impress. Your immediate supervisor is first choice. If he is fair and confident of his own job, he’ll support fair requests for raises and promotions. If he’s indecisive, he’ll base his judgment of you on what his bosses think of you. In such a case, look aboveyour immediate boss to see the guy you must impress.

2. Get yourself known. Companies often see participation in community and firm affairs as the sign of leadership and sound character. Go to company dinners, join teams, committees, and other organizations to gain recognition. Become active in charity drives, volunteer fire departments and fraternal organizations.

There are other ways. Ted Kobin, a sheet metal worker, got his name recognized by keeping up a regular flow of sound ideas to his firm’s suggestion box. One of his first ideas was to mark each steel sheet with the code number of the machine it was meant for. This saved the company hundreds of dollars a year by avoiding mixups. By his fifth or sixth idea, Kobin’s name was known to most of the plant’s executives. He got a $10 weekly increase months before it was due.

3. Improve your skill. Leo Pacy, a 33-year-old lathe operator, asked his boss to send him to a night course in his specialty. The boss agreed and for three nights a week for six months Pacy improved his skill at the firm’s expense. Four months after he finished the course, his company got an order that demanded special lathing techniques Pacy’s course had covered. He was one of the men assigned to the new project —with $20 weekly raise.

Sometimes a company will pay for a school training course. Unions and trade associations sometimes run seminars or workshops covering your job specialty. Attend. If no such help is at hand, consider paying for outside training yourself. If no courses or workshops are available, read all you can about your field. This can often push your performance high enough to merit a raise.

4. Ask for the raise. Ted Lawrence, a waiter, worked harder than ever after the restaurant was expanded. His paystayed the same. Ted braced the boss and got the raise immediately. If he had brooded a few more weeks before asking, he would have got the raise that much later. Sometimes the boss knows you should have a raise but needs a nudge; sometimes he thinks “Why raise him until he asks for it?” Don’t count on the boss to be a hero.

Times not to ask for a raise: when the firm has just lost a big customer, when firm earnings are taking a dive, when the boss’ wife has just gone out and run up a big bill or had divorce papers served on him. When under a strain the boss may fire his best employee instead of giving him a raise—just to relieve his feelings. The monster is only human.

When asking for a raise, offer the standard reasons, using discretion. (Using discretion means don’t lie about anything he can check up on easily or knows about already). The reasons are: you have taken on more work, are doing the work more efficiently, men doing the same job are getting paid more elsewhere, the cost of living is rising, your family is increasing, you have doctor’s bills or other unavoidable added expenses. Emphasize the positive reasons —those involving your value to him— over your difficulties in living on your present pay.

5. Shoot for a promotion. Art Capatano, a shipping clerk, asked his fore-man if he, Capatano, was a candidate for an assistant traffic manager’s job that would open soon. The foreman said yes but that a man with accounting experience was wanted. In one blow Capatano let his boss know he was interested in the job, found that it had not been filled, and what training would help him land the position. Capatano went to an adult education course in accounting— and let his boss know, just casually. Three monthslater the job opened and Capatano got it— with an $18 raise.

When keeping an eye open for promotions, don’t only think of your department. Talk to the men and the foremen in other departments; there may be higher turnover, less skilled competition or lower seniority.

If your job is unionized, you might have a different problem in stalking a promotion. Often, the salary that goes with a given job is pegged by a union contract. In this case, your chance for a wage boost might lie working through the union as well as through your immediate boss.

Often, becoming active in union affairs aids in being shifted to a different job category where the pay is higher for similar work. Sometimes you can apply for a supervisory position through the union itself, which often recommends its own candidates to the company. Then, participation in a union often leads to landing an official position within the organization such as shop steward.

6. Get a better job. Today, employers in almost every field are screaming for efficient, honest, and qualified workers. If you have qualities that merit a raise, and you don’t get it, chances are another employer will pay you what you deserve.

Keep on the lookout for job offers in trade journals, newspapers, and professional meetings. The manager of an upstate New York service station was repeatedly refused a raise despite added work loads. Then, he attended a regional sales meeting sponsored by the automobile company that gave his station its dealership. From an acquaintance, he heard that the manager of a service station in a nearby town was moving to Florida. His colleague helped arrange an interview with the owner. The manager got the new job and a salary boost of $20-a-week.

7. Say you’re quitting. Often an employer just doesn’t take time to estimate the worth of an employee. Consequently, requests for wage raises are parried with vague promises that never seem to materialize. But one way to make the boss face the value of your services is by presenting the possibility of his losing them. •

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Woman Scientist’s Process Makes Glass Invisible (Apr, 1939)

2009-10-29T23:21:33Z

In the next issue: “Woman Scientist’s Invention Makes Water Wet!”

Woman Scientist’s Process Makes Glass Invisible

GLARE from reflected light, which has made it difficult to see pictures framed under glass at certain angles, has been removed by a new process developed in General Electric’s research laboratory by Dr. Katherine B. Blodgett (above).” By applying thin chemical films to the surface of glass, Dr. Blodgett has been able to nullify or neutralize rebounding light rays with the result that pictures framed with glass so treated appear as though there was no glass at all, regardless of the angle viewed from, as represented by center panel section of the portrait above.

The process consists of building or attach-ing to the glass a very thin transparent film of about four millionths of an inch, or exactly one-quarter wave length of light, in thickness. As light falls upon the film, rays are reflected from both the upper and lower surfaces. With the film exactly one-quarter wave length in thickness, the rays coming from the outer or upper surface are equal in intensity to those rays reflected from the lower surface, thus counteracting one another, and no light is reflected. The non-glare treatment of glass promises to have a wide-spread application in the field of camera, telescope and all other type lenses, including eye glasses although the process is still in the laboratory stage.

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NEW PRODUCTS of scientific and mechanical interest (Feb, 1946)

2009-10-29T18:40:25Z

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NEW PRODUCTS of scientific and mechanical interest

A THERMOSTATICALLY CONTROLLED SOLDERING iron is announced by the Sound Equipment Corporation of Glendale, Cal. The Kwikheat takes only 90 seconds to be ready for use by means of a 225 watt heating unit controlled by the thermostat. Eliminating the excessively high temperatures acquired by ordinary irons during the idle period, this new iron has an unusually long life expectancy.

Six different threaded tips are available, one of which is an alloy melting pot. The iron, U.L. approved, is designed for A.C.

THE ROTAKIT, something new for the home workshop enthusiast and mechanic, has been announced by the Nicholson File Co. of Providence, R. I. It is built in the shape of a miniature bench stand and enables the worker to keep all his rotary files and burs in plain sight. A glass front serves to protect the files from dust.

Three assortments are available: No. 20 containing ten Ground Burs; No. 30, ten hand cut Rotary Files; No. 40, five Ground Burs and five Rotary Files. These can be used for die-making, pattern making, mold finishing, tool making, or wherever else a precision file or bur is needed for finishing.

A “LIFT-OUT” RADIO is one of the features in the new Westinghouse line of phono-radio combinations being produced at their Sunbury, Pa. plant. The radio which forms the front part of the combination can be easily lifted out for use as an independent set. The unit, known as the Duo, accepts 12 10-in. or 10 12-in. records for automatic playing.

Three other table models and five consoles have also been announced. A new power circuit is another feature of these radios. Called Plenti-Power it practically doubles the output of pre-war sets using the same number of tubes.

KITCHEN VENTILATORS are wanted by 96 out of every 100 women according to a recent survey. The ILG Electric Ventilating Company of Chicago is now producing three sizes for small, medium, and large kitchens (see photo below) as well as portable models equipped with adjustable panels for sliding sash window frames. An automatic model is also available which eliminates manual pull-chain operation.

A TEN OUNCE POCKET RADIO, small enough to fit into your pocket, without crowding and measuring 3 in. wide, 6-1/4 in. high and only 3/4 in. thick is now in actual production by the Belmont Radio Corp. of Chicago. The extreme compactness of this newmidget is made possible by the use of tiny radio tubes, the same kind used in hearing aids and of the type used in the radar proximity fuse. These tubes weigh about a tenth of an ounce and have a cross section about the same as an oval cigaret. Prices for these midget sets will start at about $30; they will be available in gold, silver, two tone metal and various leathers.

A PNEUMATIC SAW designed to speed-up and simplify sawing and filing operations is now being distributed by the Air-Speed Tool Co. of Los Angeles, Calif. The saw. built to operate with about 85 pounds of pressure, has an adjustable barrel which readily permits cutting in metals or woods as well as intricate dead end, keyhole and scroll work.

Long trouble-free life is assured since the saw has only two internal operating parts. There are no gears, adaptors, or power-take-off devices.

This new tool weighs only 3-1/2 pounds.

A DE LUXE PHONOGRAPH COMBINATION housing a 14 tube chassis equipped for Frequency and Amplitude Modulation reception. Television, and Wire Recording is now being manufactured by the Lear Radio Co., of Grand Rapids, Mich. The console has a 14 inch speaker and a de luxe record changer. List prices range from $500 to $600. The modern classic lines of these consoles have been designed by a leading Grand Rapids designer.

A WASHER THAT HAS EVERYTHING INCLUDING THE KITCHEN SINK is now here due to the efforts of the Hurley Machine Co. of Chicago. The Thor Automagic washing machine does the daily dishes and the weekly washing at a selling price, according to the manufacturer, of less than many pre-war washing machines. It can be purchased as a dish washer or as a clothes washer alone and the accessories added at a later date. Eight pounds of clothes and dishes for six is the capacity of the washer. Proposed attachments will include an ice-cream freezer, a home churn, and a potato peeler.

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Take A Seat—But Watch For Splinters (Feb, 1943)

2009-10-29T18:39:57Z

Take A Seat—But Watch For Splinters

MANUFACTURERS of upholstered furniture, who are no longer able to get metal for springs because of priorities, were invited at a furniture show recently to take a look at the spring pictured at right. Band-sawed from a piece of wood, this spring has plenty of resilience, may well replace in many peacetime functions spring steel needed for war uses. Weight for weight, it is said to be as strong as steel.

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Scientists Invent Machine To Discover How Brain Works (Apr, 1935)

2009-10-28T16:53:51Z

Scientists Invent Machine To Discover How Brain Works

THE brain, perhaps the most mystifying organ of the human body, can now be scientifically studied by a new apparatus which photographs amplified “action currents.” Invented by Dr. H. H. Jasper and Dr. L. Carmichael of Brown University, the new machine will permit physicians to study the action of the brain just as the electrocardiograph permits a revealing study of heart action.

A headpiece on the head of the patient picks up electric currents of about one ten-millionths of a volt which flow from the brain in waves, at a rate of from eight to fifty per second. The currents are carried to an amplifying box where they are intensified 500,000 times and flashed across a glass disc. The ordinary currents are smooth and wavy; when the mind is disturbed, they are sharp and irregular.

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Freckles Frozen Off With Dry Ice (Feb, 1933)

2009-10-28T16:53:09Z

I’m going to guess that freckle used to be synonymous with mole. Otherwise, this could take a while. Also, I love the assumption that readers are all white.

Freckles Frozen Off With Dry Ice
FREEZING off freckles by means of pencils of compressed carbon dioxide snow, often called “dry ice,” is a new method of getting rid of these skin blemishes devised by an Italian physician, Dr. M. Matarasso. The dry ice, which will freeze all human tissues solid after contact of more than a few moments, is compressed into a small stick or pencil, sharp-pointed like a lead pencil. The point of this pencil of concentrated cold then is pressed against each freckle in turn for three seconds. After the colored skin of the freckle drops off in about a week, the new skin thus disclosed is white and unmarked.

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Novel Ice Cream Dispenser (Feb, 1932)

2009-10-28T16:52:51Z

Novel Ice Cream Dispenser

SODA jerkers and confectioners who are called on to “dish up” ice cream cones will appreciate the labor-saving features of a new tray which holds the cones in such a manner that both hands are free for the filling operation. Aside from its time-saving aspect, the tray permits the salesman to pause in his work of filling the cones in case he is called on to serve a rush customer.

The section containing the holes which hold the cones fits over a wooden tray base, so that the device comes in two parts. Advertising copy for ice cream manufacturers can be imprinted on the holders.

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Inside The Music-Box of Giant Bells (Mar, 1936)

2009-10-28T16:52:33Z

Inside The Music-Box of Giant Bells

IN the bell loft of the Rockefeller church in New York it suspended the first of the tuned carrillons, the smallest bells of which are shown above. The resonance of a bell, which lasts for several moments, has previously prevented accurate tuning of carrillons, but this age-old annoyance has been eliminated by a system of bell dampers invented by G. M. Giannini.

Right—Where the ancient carrillon players pulled an assortment of ropes, the modern musician sits down to his instrument like an organist. Electricity and compressed air swing the weighty clappers. Left—The Rockefeller church in New York, where thousands are delighting in the tuneful melody of the bells.

Above—The “Music Box” of the giant carrillon. Each peg represents a note in the melody, struck electrically when the giant drum revolves automatically. Left—This damper suppresses the tone of the bell the instant it is no longer contributing to the melody. The damper is the secret of carrillon tuning, and was discovered by Giannini, a young electrical engineer. Each note can thus be heard distinctly, not submerged in a dissonant chorus.

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Violin Made Of New “Glass” (Feb, 1939)

2009-10-27T13:46:04Z

Poindexter really should have had one of these.

Violin Made Of New “Glass”
ANEW type of unbreakable, flexible material which has the same transparency as ordinary glass, but weighs less, size for size, has been invented in Germany. A product of artificial resins, the new material can be bent, twisted, punched, cut with a scissors, polished and sawed. As a demonstration of the possibilities of the new “glass,” the full-size violin shown above was made entirely from sample sheets, with the exception of the usual strings.

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Bullets from Same Gun Linked By Camera (Apr, 1936)

2009-10-27T13:45:42Z

Bullets from Same Gun Linked By Camera

PHOTOGRAPHIC evidence as to whether or not two bullets were fired from same gun is irrefutably supplied by a new comparison camera invented by Dr. J. H. Mathews, University of Wisconsin professor and criminologist.

The camera marks a sensational advance of science in the war against crime. By taking pictures of opposite sections of the two bullets being checked, the camera reconstructs a composite bullet of the two sections. The resulting photographic reproduction is enlarged between 64 and 256 times the size of the bullets, permitting positive identification before a courtroom jury.

The camera is really two cameras merging into one at the single plate holder. The bottom camera takes a photo of the base of one bullet while the upper camera registers the top section of the second bullet, the two halves appearing on the print as one.

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WHISKEY or DRUG HABIT (Feb, 1929)

2009-10-27T13:45:22Z

Unfortunately if you like vodka, you’re screwed.

WHISKEY or DRUG HABIT
Cured Forever or No Pay. Full treatment sent on trial. Can be given secretly in privacy of home. Guaranteed to banish forever all desire for whiskey, gin, wine, home brew, moonshine, opium, morphine, heroin, paregoric and laudanum. Costs $2.00 if cures, nothing if fails. Save him from poison.
STANDARD LABORATORIES
Sta. N-62 Baltimore, Md.

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Man Makes His Own Rubber (Feb, 1938)

2009-10-27T13:44:55Z

If you just looked at the first page of this you’d think it was about BBQ.

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Man Makes His Own Rubber

THE diversified chemical manufacturing industry of America is finding a way to make this country free from dependence on foreign sources for an increasing number of vital raw materials. Only a few years ago, America depended on the nitrate beds of Chile for fertilizers and raw materials for industry. Today, it makes its own nitrates from the air.

Camphor was from time immemorial a natural monopoly of the Far East. Today, America makes its own synthetic camphor for medicine and the needs of industry. A large and increasing number of medicinaland other compounds, formerly imported, are now being produced here. And now rubber may be added to this list of essential raw materials.

Rubber is a vital element in our life. It is used not only for tires but for thousands of other products that are essential to our industrial civilization. More than ninety-nine per cent of the world’s rubber is grown in the tropics. Many attempts have been made to grow substitutes for rubber in the United States, but none has ever succeeded.

Millions of American dollars, British pounds, and German marks have been expended during the past fifty years in anattempt to produce a synthetic rubber; that is, a product identical with natural rubber made by chemical means, preferably fromraw materials that are freely available in these industrial countries. All of these efforts to produce a true synthetic rubber have met with failure. Germany, duringthe World War, did produce a synthetic product that was used as a substitute for rubber, but it was a very poor imitation of the natural product and consequently its production was dropped as soon as the war ended in 1918.

In 1925, research chemists of the du Pont Company began to work on the rubber problem, but they did not try to duplicate natural rubber as others had done. “Why,” they said, “should we assume that the product created by nature for an entirely different purpose is the best material for making the thousands of rubber products that modern industry requires? Why be content to reproduce in the laboratory the product that Nature has provided? Let’s start with different raw materials and produce a product that is even better adapted to present-day industrial requirements.” Among other things, they visualized a process for the production of arubber-like material from acetylene gas. The first experiments were quite disappointing, but help came from an unexpected quarter.

The chemical director of the du Pont Company attended the first symposium on organic chemistry which was held in Rochester by the American Chemical Society. At that meeting, Father J. A. Nieuwland of the University of Notre Dame told of the results of some of his experiments on the chemistry of acetylene. Father Nieuwland had been studying the gas and conducting research into its properties for many years and was recognized as the outstanding authority on its behavior from a scientific point of view.

His report told how he had succeeded in causing acetylene to polymerize, or, in plain words, to form giant molecules by combination of smaller molecules with one another. Acetylene when combined in this way became a different chemical entirely called di-vinyl-acetylene. That was something that the du Pont chemists had not tried. Arrangements were made to have Father Nieuwland’s experiments duplicated in the du Pont laboratories and an effort was made to convert this di-vinyl-acetylene to synthetic rubber, but it did not work. From di-vinyl-acetylene the chemists were able to obtain only the hard, brittle resins that Father Nieuwland had already produced.

The next step in the pursuit of a better lubber substitute was taken by a group of chemists who found that by changing theconditions that Dr. Nieuwland had used it was possible to convert acetylene to another chemical known as mono-vinyl-acetylene. It was hoped that a good artificial rubber could be made from this chemical, but again the experiments were unsuccessful.

The chemists who were working on this problem, however, refused to believe that it could not be done. They continued their work, and a few years later they found that by treating mono-vinyl-acetylene with hydrogen chloride gas they could produce a new channel which had never before been made and which they christened chloroprene.

Chloroprene is a volatile liquid; it certainly does not bear any resemblance to rubber. But the next and most startling discovery of all was that this liquid chloroprene can easily be converted to a tough, elastic solid. Imagine the elation of the chemists when they found that they had at last produced what chemists had been striving for so many years and had failed to find—an artificial product that is fully equal to natural rubber in strength, toughness and resistance to abrasion.

But the real thrill came a few weeks later when they proved that this chloroprene rubber is actually superior to natural rubber in many ways. They had not produced a synthetic rubber but had made something immensely more valuable—an elastic material that is superior to natural rubber.

The first step in the manufacture of neoprene is to heat coal and limestone in an electric furnace, producing calcium carbide, designated by chemical symbols as CaC2. The next step is to add water to the calcium carbide and produce acetylene gas (C2H2)«There is nothing new about the manufacture of calcium carbide and its conversion to acetylene gas. Everyone who is old enough to remember the early days of the automobile will recall the acetylene generators that were usually mounted on the running board in which grayish lumps of calcium carbide were treated with water, producing the acetylene gas that was burned in the headlights. However, the next step in the manufacture of neoprene carries us into a new realm of chemistry. Acetylene gas is treated with a catalyst in specially-designed apparatus made of new corrosion-resisting alloys with the result that the acetylene molecules combine with one another to form a previously unknown chemical compound, mono-vinyl-acetylene. Mono-vinyl-acetylene, also a gas, is then put into another catalyst chamber where it is caused to combine with hydrogen chloride gas. The intermarriage of these gases produces another new chemical, chloroprene, which, strange as it may seem, is no longer a gas but a liquid.

The final step in this chain of chemical miracles is to subject liquid chloroprene to a polymerization process which causes the molecules to combine, producing a tough, rubber-like solid which is known as neoprene.

The perversity of chemical reactions is such that the materials being combined often tend to react not in the desired manner, but to combine in different proportions with the production of unwanted impurities or byproducts. The problem of the chemists and engineers who were charged with the responsibility of making this process work was to design equipment and methods of chemical control which would make the reactions follow the desired channels and produce neoprene having a maximum degree of strength, toughness and elasticity.

It was not an easy problem. The first special equipment designed for the job did not work satisfactorily. Changes were made and again the results were disappointing. The process was further modified and the result was more disappointments, but in the end the problem was solved and now in 1938—seven years after the first experimental factory was built—a huge chemical plant is converting millions of pounds of calcium carbide into neoprene. Apparatus and equipment unlike anything the chemical industry ever before knew made it possible for manufacturing chemists to direct these reactions in the desired channels, keep them under control, and produce an even better product than was originally made in the chemical laboratory.

Neoprene resembles natural rubber more closely than any other artificial product. The X-ray discloses that its physical structure is the same even though its chemical composition is different. It looks like crude rubber shipped from the rubber plantations and is mixed with other materials, processed, and vulcanized by rubber manufacturers just like the natural product. But although the finest articles look like those made of crude rubber and have the same elasticity, stretch and toughness, they, also have the ability to resist the action of oils, gasolines and solvents which destroy rubber. They resist heat, and direct sunlight does not cause them to check and crack so readily. They resist the passage of gases and have a much longer, useful life than like articles made from nature’s product.

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BUSINESS Welcomes NEEDED GADGETS (Jan, 1935)

2009-10-26T04:18:58Z

BUSINESS Welcomes NEEDED GADGETS

Motor cleaning fluid which is poured into an auto engine through the spark plug openings is said to clean out carbon deposits overnight.

Bottle cap with a new measuring cone permits accurate pouring of the correct medicinal dose without using a spoon or dropper.

Centrifugal water pump powered by 10 h.p. outboard engine is designed for fire fighting, small irrigating jobs, or even for pumping dirty, sand-laden water.

Combination sofa-bed has ash trays and bookshelves built into wide, cushioned arms.

Electric turntable for store windows, powered by small electric motor, runs at 4 revolutions a minute, and costs less than 2 cents a day for power. It will support displays weighing up to 10 pounds.

Radio test leads with interchangeable points permit use of either needle or blunt point when testing radio apparatus.

Grease guns using cartridge refills eliminate messy filling from cans when greasing automobiles. Factory-loaded 1-lb. grease cartridge is slipped into gun. Single gun serves for full greasing operation, since cartridges are interchangeable even when partly empty.

Short-wave tuning oscillator attachable to any all wave radio receiver gives pleasing tuning signal tone to help find distant stations. Signal tone disappears when the switch is thrown, leaving the desired station accurately tuned in.

Electric lighting plants in 300 to 2000 watts capacity provide flickerless 110 volt, 60 cycle current for lake cottages and farm homes. Gas engine, starter, governor, and generator are all combined in one compact unit.

New fisherman’s aidpermits trolling at any depth without the use of heavy sinkers. Sliding weights on the device reverse the action of the troller to bring the fish to the surface after a strike.

Projector for 16 mm. film throws 15×20′ pictures brilliant enough for theater or auditorium use. A 1000-watt light combined with a highly effective optical system makes this exceptional performance possible.

Vertical spindle wood shaper selling at less than five dollars operates from any motor over 1/10h.p., and cuts a variety of bevels, moldings or grooves. The spindle is readily adjusted on the metal frame for a new cut.

Magazine loading razor contains 20 blades; blades are changed instantly when necessary without touching them. The angle of the blade to the handle changes constantly with use, to conform to the contours of the face.

Cigarette package opener slices out small hole in end of package with one movement of operating lever.

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Agitators, Engineers Are Chessmen (Mar, 1934)

2009-10-26T04:17:56Z

Agitators, Engineers Are Chessmen

MODERN as tomorrow morning’s headlines, a newly simplified form of the game of chess has for its game board the Modern World, and for its pieces Farmers, Mechanics, Engineers and even Agitators struggling against forces symbolized by opposing Armies, Bankers, Radio, Press, Law and Middlemen trying to become Rankers.

The play, which is solely a matter of skill, centers around opposing forces trying to dominate one neutral piece called Government while either the red or white side, as the antagonists are named, is in power.

The game may be played by either two, three, or four persons and is substantially like chess. But gone are the Pawns, the Knights, and the Kings and Queens,

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“Gee, Mom, Were They All Poor People?” (Mar, 1938)

2009-10-26T04:17:20Z

“Gee, Mom, Were They All Poor People?”

“Not exactly poor, Bobby. They had money. But they didn’t have all the nice things that we have—such as a radio, and electric lights, and a vacuum cleaner. You see, they didn’t have electricity, or automobiles, or airplanes. Most of those things hadn’t even been invented.”

EVEN as late as 1900, only one American home in every seven had a bathtub; one in 13 had a telephone; one home in 30 had electric lights. There were only 8000 automobiles. Manufactured products were scarce and expensive.

Today there are 20 million bathtubs, 18 million telephones, 22 million wired homes, 25, million automobiles, and millions of other manufactured prod-ucts which were unheard of in 1900 but are now plentiful and sell at a fraction of their former cost.

General Electric scientists and engineers, by applying electrical methods to the tasks of industry, have helped to provide us with the many products that contribute to our comfort and convenience, and to the hundreds of services which we enjoy today.

G-E research and engineering have saved the public from ten to one hundred dollarsfor every dollar they have earned for General Electric

GENERAL ELECTRIC

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NAVY tackles Mt. Everest (Jan, 1947)

2009-10-26T04:15:50Z

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NAVY tackles Mt. Everest

In an epochal 30-day experiment the Navy “climbed” two men “higher” than Mt. Everest—without oxygen.

By CAPT. J. H. KORB, U.S.. Navy Medical Corps, as told to Jamea Kevin Miller

SCIENCE now has proved that flyers and mountain climbers can reach altitudes of almost six miles, remain normal and alert, and come away none the worse for wear—without supplemental oxygen.

It is only necessary that they accustom themselves gradually to the decreasing pressures and dwindling oxygen.

For this discovery, of much value in the planning of future upper air explorations, credit goes to a pair of venturesome young men of the U. S. Navy —Lieut, (jg) Walter S. McNutt, Jr., and Carlton R. Morris, Hospital Apprentice. Under the supervision of Lieut. Cmdr. Charles S. Houston, U.S.N.R., aflight surgeon and authority on mountain climbing, McNutt and Morris tested for an entire month, in Florida, an odd sea-level combination of mountain climbing and airplane flying called “Operation Everest.” The men lived in a compression chamber. They “flew” or “climbed” almost six miles without supplemental oxygen and suffered no ill effects. They reached a simulated altitude of 29,025 feet-23 feet higher than the unconquered peak of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world.

The program’s purpose was to study the adaptation of the human body to slowly increasing anoxia, or lack ofoxygen. As a result of its findings it may be possible to reproduce artificially the necessary physiological changes in an aviator in order to “acclimatize” him quickly before he reaches the upper air.

At the start of the venture four Navy volunteers entered the pressure chamber at the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, for a month’s exposure to the record-breaking conditions. Morris wasn’t on the regular “team,” but filled in when one of the original volunteers had to drop out because it was difficult to obtain arterial blood from his arm—one of the main tests needed to make the program a success.

Morris and McNutt reached the “altitude” topping Mount Everest, remained there for almost 30 minutes and didn’t lose consciousness.

The two other volunteers blacked out after the chamber had passed 27,000 feet and were revived with supplemental oxygen.

During their month’s stay in the lab-oratory chamber, the four volunteers were given the closest medical and scientific care and observation. Food was served them three times a day and they exercised on a stationary bicycle. They were shown movies each night. They slept on comfortable cots. They were under continuous observation.

Their day began at 6 A.M. when technician entered the chamber through an air lock to record temperatures, blood pressures and weights. Technicians, doctors and researchers wore oxygen masks when entering the chamber, to prevent the mental confusion which normally results from lack of oxygen. After bathing in GI cans the volunteers had breakfast, then they underwent physical and psychological tests. Some of these tests were continued even after they went to bed. Special contrivances recorded the men’s heartbeats while they slept.

There was a regular “climbing” schedule calling for the men to “go up” 2,000 feet a day for the first five days, 1,000feet a day from the sixth to the twentieth days and 500 feet a day thereafter.

Both men lost a little weight, but they emerged in tip-top shape, in large part due to strict diet control.

The test chamber was really something to see. It was of steel, about 20 feet long and perhaps 10 feet in diameter, with two doors about six feet apart in one end. Technicians and observers who entered the chamber did so by way of a small lock, remaining there until its air was reduced to the same pressure as that of the volunteers; and when they left the process was reversed. The chamber bristled with control appliances and was operated by a 14-man crew of experts.

It was interesting to watch McNutt and Morris as they “climbed” to their record-breaking height of 29,025 feet on the next to the last day. When they reached this height their blue complexions turned to a rather deep purple. (If this sounds a bit wild, let me explainthat men start to turn blue in the face after they’ve been exposed to heights of about 13,000 feet without supplemental oxygen.) At this point they were breathing heavily and looked definitely uncomfortable; but they stayed there without supplemental oxygen for four hours.

Other high altitude physiological studies are sure to follow this initial effort, for with airplanes reaching ever higher speeds and altitudes, means must be found to live through the failure of pressurized cabins or oxygen gear.

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WHEN A CABLE SNARLS (Jun, 1917)

2009-10-21T15:20:58Z

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WHEN A CABLE SNARLS

By C.L. EDHOLM

WHAT happens when a submarine cable is dragged by a ship’s anchor is shown in the accompanying photographs ; this accident occurred to the New York Telephone Company’s connections between Brooklyn and lower Manhattan. A steamer, trying to make its pier, was carried too far by the swift current under the Brooklyn Bridge. Dropping its anchor, it caught the cables lying on the bottom beneath the bridge. When the captain discovered his mistake, he ordered the anchor chain cut, so the anchorand one hundred eighty feet of chain remained entangled in a confusion of twenty cables. As may be imagined, the results were disastrous, as seventeenof these cables contained 3,500 pairs; Brooklyn and lower Manhattan were abruptly disconnected.

From the Brooklyn side, the cables together with the large beam to which they were chained were pulled into the stream for a distance of thirty or forty feet and the cable house near the bridge was so filled with a tangle of wires that it was impossible to enter; the complicated connections had been pulled violently out of place. On the New York side things were not so bad, but two cables had been dislodged and the heavypiles which secured them were broken.

While the confusion was being cleared up at the cable houses, and while emergency measures were taken to route messages by a circuitous way, a diver was put to work in the river bed, examining the wreckage on the bottom. It was found impossible to unchain the cables separately so that they could be pulled back one at a time, for they were so entangled that the whole mass must be raised at once. This had to be done with the greatest care in order to avoid pulling out the remain- , ing cables, which were held in place only by the lead sheath.

The current was swift where the snarl lay in the stream, and the diver could not work to advantage. A rope was sent down to him which he attached to one of the ring bolts, and after a number of these wire cables had been fastened to the mass, it was raised slowly by power from the cable boat. The tangle that was raised alongside the vessel seemed absolutely hopeless, but by hard work the cables were separated, unchained from the beam and pulled back one at a time to the cable house and terminated. For a period of four or five days men worked constantly in the cable houses, one shift following another immediately. In completing the task, these employes had to endure the most terrible hardships, for working conditions were particularly severe.

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Bike Pedal Light Warns Motorists (Jan, 1935)

2009-10-20T16:03:09Z

It’ll never catch on.

Bike Pedal Light Warns Motorists

COLORED reflectors designed for mounting on bicycle pedals were recently introduced in England as part of a “safety first for cyclists” movement.

The colored glass crystals, being continually in motion as the cyclist pedals along, glow brilliantly when in headlight beams of approaching cars.

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Pad Relieves Motorist Eye Strain (Jan, 1932)

2009-10-20T16:02:57Z

Pad Relieves Motorist Eye Strain
A SPECIALLY designed eye pad, recently introduced, needs only to be moistened and worn over the eyes to give relief from eye strain due to long motor trips or sun glare. The pad comes in a convenient form for carrying in a small
space and can be applied easily.

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Reluctant Taxidermist (Aug, 1954)

2009-10-20T16:02:48Z

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Reluctant Taxidermist

Movie editor Bonn retired 27 years ago to enjoy his hobby but now he’s back in business.

By Peter Hill Gannet

TWENTY-SEVEN years ago John H. Bonn, then living in Portchester, N. Y., was a successful motion picture production editor with Paramount Pictures.

Taxidermy was only his hobby and at that time he was rather new at it. He’d been a fan only three years. It had always fascinated him, perhaps because of his love of animals and his appreciation of their beauty. It would be natural for him to try to duplicate nature’s handiwork.

Now his museum in Sheffield, Mass., about 25 feet square and built at a cost of $7,000 houses over 1,500 birds and animals ranging from a passenger pigeon extinct for 40 years to an unborn calf. Included are a Tragopan pheasant from Nepul, a huge king vulture from South America, anodd Paradise crane from Africa whose delicate wings touch the ground, an African crown crane with a stylish pompom, three birds of Paradise, a case of 66 native songbirds, an almost complete collection of North American wild ducks and geese and, in addition, over 800 animals. Such is his hobby. But Bonn is in business, too.

A hobbyist with a rare and valuable collection likes to show off his trophies and Bonn is no exception. The only trouble has been that almost everyone to whom he has done so, seems to have had a specimen or two he has wanted the taxidermist to mount for him. And the ex-movie editor is so adept and skillful in any mounting job he undertakes that his reputation has spread by worddia on a picture-taking expedition when the famous actor died.

Most of Bonn’s current business is, of course, from sportsmen who bring him their fish, deer, woodchucks and foxes and beg him to mount them. In 1953 he filled over 100 such orders reluctantly, because, since he is an artist, he devotes just as much meticulous care and painstaking skill to every job he undertakes, not only his own, and such an attitude does not make for production-line techniques.

He considers birds the easiest creatures to mount since the body consists of a wire frame with molded paper covering upon which the skin is stretched. And the feathers retain their natural color and need no doctoring. Fish are difficult, he claims, since the skinning must be done with as much skill as an expert surgeon employs during a delicate operation. And the body must be carved from balsa wood. For example, it takes him about two hours to mount a pheasant but far longer to do a workmanlike job on one of the finny species.

The taxidermist’s tools are a scalpel, scissors, draw-knife, arsenical soap, borax, needle and thread, paper mache, wood wool and wire —and an infinite amount of skill and patience. A deer head, for example, begins with the skinning and later shaving down of the skin with a draw-knife. Then the skin must be fitted to a mannikin head with the mannikin ears fitted in place. Then the horns are bolted on. Sounds easy? It looks easy, too, when one sees Bonn at his worktable. One imagines a young interne receives the same sensation while watching a famous surgeon’s nimble fingers at work.

Bonn’s prices? A deer head costs $30, a pheasant $10, fish from $20 up. A recent job was the mounting of a record 9-pound 5-ounce pickerel for which he charged $30.

They’re exceedingly low, proof that Bonn is a true artist and hobbyist, not a businessman. But don’t rush for a pen-and-paper to ask him to do your mounting job. He’ll probably refuse. But if you should be driving past his museum on the Sheffield road which stretches between Canaan, Conn, and Great Barrington, Mass. and should decide to drop in for a chat, and if he should decide to accept you as a friend, you might be able to persuade the reluctant taxidermist to reincarnate your trophy in all its vivid coloring and naturalness of true life.

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Punctured Auto Tube Seals Itself (Jul, 1934)

2009-10-18T21:22:53Z

Punctured Auto Tube Seals Itself

A NEW tire tube contains specially compounded plastic rubber which flows into a puncture, quickly closing it and preventing loss of air.

Unlike previous devices of this nature, the new tube gives unusual comfort in use and is light in weight. It can be used on the smallest car without jolting the passengers.

In a recent test an awl was driven repeatedly into one of the tubes; but the plastic rubber effectually sealed each of the holes with virtually no loss of air.

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It’s the Law! (Dec, 1936)

2009-10-18T21:22:50Z

Two things:
a) I’m not sure they could have come up with a more offensive picture to represent the cook in the last panel.
b) Dick Hyman. Really?

It’s the Law!

BY Dick hyman

In Collingswood, N. J., dogs are forbidden by ordinance to bark between the hours of 8 PM. and 6 A.M.

An ordinance in Mt. Pulaski, Ill., forbids boys to throw snowballs at trees within the city limits.

It is against the law in Maryland to knock a freight train off the track.

Florida has a law forbidding you to hire away your neighbor’s cook

IT’S THE LAW appears each month in The American Magazine

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Scientists Approve High Heels (May, 1932)

2009-10-18T21:21:33Z

Scientists Approve High Heels

REFORMERS who condemn high heels are themselves condemned in a recent scientific study reported to the Royal Society of Medicine, London. Instead of being unhealthful, high heels are actually easier on the body than low ones.

In spite of the present vogue of high heels, there is no evidence that corns, flat feet, or other disorders are increasing. Scientists have thus given heels over two inches high a clean bill of health.

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HOW TO BOWL (Feb, 1940)

2009-10-18T21:20:52Z

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HOW TO BOWL

by Joe Falcaro

I HAVE, through personal instruction, made thousands of good bowlers from beginners. Too, I have made hundreds of excellent bowlers, men who average around 200, from good bowlers.

Any bowling secrets I have been able to reveal to these bowlers you will find on these pages. I urge that you read this article several times, slowly and carefully, so that no point is missed. Study it as you might study a lesson in school. Memorize it, if necessary, but be sure you under-stand and apply every point in practice.

This advice goes to those of you who may have been bowling for five or ten years, as well as the beginner. It is my observation that very often the bowler who has been at the game for some time, and may be a creditable performer in tournaments, is guilty of one or two primary faults, which, if corrected, would raise his bowling average 10 to even 25 pins a game.

What’s most important? The answer: Proper equipment, if you really have ambi-tions to be a class-A bowler. Bowling shoes are not expensive. Get a pair. They will last five years or more. Get a ball, too. With your own ball you will enjoy the game more and bowl better. A ball lasts a lifetime.

If you can’t get bowling shoes be sure the shoes you bowl in have rubber heels and leather soles. Never bowl in rubber-soled shoes. The left foot must slide as you approach the foul line, on your final step, and a rubber sole will not permit this. Too, you must use your heel as a brake and the only kind that will so function are of rubber.

Whether you use a two-finger ball or three-finger ball is a decision you will have to make. You can bowl as well with either, and the three-finger ball is easier for most persons to hold. For those reasons I usually suggest a three-finger ball to a beginner, especially one whose finger grip is not strong enough to hold the two-finger ball without tiring.

Don’t get the idea a three-finger ball is for sissies. If that grip feels more comfortable to you, use it.

Now for fitting the ball. The ball must be a perfect fit if you are going to score well, and consistently. The method for determining the proper fit is the same for both the three-finger and two-finger ball. The thumb is fitted first, and should be inserted as deep as possible into the largest hole in the ball. The fit around the thumb should be just loose enough for comfort, and tight enough to maintain friction when the thumb is bent at the joint and pulled out of the hole. If there is doubt in yourmind, select a thumb-hole on the loose side.

The holes for the other fingers should fit with the same degree of looseness. Very important in fitting a ball is the span—the distance between the thumb-hole and the hole for the second finger. This distance should be such that the second finger can be inserted up to the second joint without stretching or cramping the hand. The sure way to measure this is to insert the thumb full length and let the entire length of the second finger rest on the ball, over the hole for which that finger is intended. If the second joint of that finger projects about 1/4-inch past the inside edge of the finger hole, the ball is the right span for you. Use this same rule in fitting the third finger, if you use a three-finger ball.

A too-narrow span, or a too-wide span will make your bowling erratic, destroy your accuracy. It is wise when selecting a ball to get the advice of the bowling alley proprietor as to the proper fit.

Now that you have selected the proper ball, take care to spread your fingers not occupied in holding the ball, onto the ball’s surface. Don’t spread them so far they feel stiff and unnatural, but getspace between them, so that each finger contributes to guiding the sphere. The next most important thing in learning to bowl well is poise. In the case of many persons who have been bowling for years without attaining consistently high scores, lack of poise is probably the most important single factor in their failure. By poise I mean physical relaxation or lack of muscular tenseness, and a frame of mind that permits complete concentration on the job at hand. So complete must be this concentration that you are not aware of spectators, what is being done on the alley next to you, what your score is, or anything except proper delivery of your ball.

Bowling alleys everywhere have their fire-eaters, muscular gents who screw up their features into a grimace of desperation, whosearm and back muscles become hard as rocks when they swing the ball for delivery—but who will never be really good bowlers.

Here is a little test to show you the importance of relaxation. Stand about arm’s length from an ordinary push-button wall switch, the type that turns your ceiling electric light off and on. Now deliberately make your body, leg and arm muscles as tense as you are able. While your muscles are tense, reach out and try to turn the light off and on with your index finger by punching the switch in full arm jab, bringing your right hand back to the chest between jabs.

In ten jabs you are sure to miss the switch several times. Now repeat your efforts to punch the switch, but with body and arm muscles relaxed.

The results should be much better, usually ten perfect contacts with the button out of ten tries. The lesson you learn from this is obvious: If, with muscles tense, you can’t punch a light switch at thirty inches, what chance have you to hit a head pin sixty feet away with muscles tense?

Relax, that’s the answer, but concentrate mentally on the job at hand.

The next thing to determine is the number of steps you want to use in approaching the foul line to deliver the ball. Four steps are most commonly used, once you have learned to handle the ball. This is the most satisfactory number from the standpoint of maintaining the body balance and imparting sufficient forward motion to the ball. Very fat persons or beginners usually find three forward steps more satisfactory. The five-step approach is to be avoided by all except expert bowlers.

To determine the proper distance for starting your approach for the four-step delivery simply pace off four steps, back from the foul line, then add about six inches so your toe won’t touch the foul line when you deliver, and mark the distance on the floor with your heel, or even a piece of chalk.

Now take your position, heels on the mark you have made, about six inches in from the right-hand edge of the alley. Stand erect, and let your eyes travel from a spot about six inches in from the right edge of the alley atthe foul line in an imaginary line along the alley surface to the head pin. Somewhere along this imaginary line, from ten to twenty feet from the foul line, find a spot on the alley bed, and focus your eyes on that spot.

This spot may be a darker board in the alley bed, or a lighter one. It may be a corner of a board, where it joins another of lighter or darker color.

It is at this spot you are going to throw the ball. After the spot is selected you are not to look at the pins until after the ball is delivered. If you are near-sighted, select a spot closer to the foul line, but no closer than four feet from this line.

The reason for picking a spot and bowling at it, rather than aiming and throwing at the head pin sixty feet away, is that it is easier for anyone to hit an object the closer it is to them. For instance, throw a sofa pillow at a door five feet away and you can hit it every time, back off thirty feet and you will miss now and then. By the same logic, it is easier to roll your ball over the spot ten feet away and depend on a projection of its path to place the ball in the pocket between the No. 1 and No. 3 pin, than it is to aim and throw at the target 60 feet away.

You have taken your position, ball in hand, heels on the mark about twelve feet back of the foul line, six inches in from the edge of the alley. When the proper time comes you are going to lay the ball about six inches in from the right edge of the alley, at the foul line.

Remember you are relaxed, legs straight, elbows bent at right angles, ball at about beltother pins for a strike. Thus, ten perfect hits with a very fast ball will not result in as many strikes as ten identical hits with a somewhat slower ball.

All bowlers should strive to perfect a uniform delivery, throwing the ball with the same speed for every shot. You can accomplish this with least trouble if you throw a straight ball. A person throwing a hook ball will find his ball curving less sharply on a slippery or “fast” alley. His temptation will be to slow down his delivery, throw a slower ball and give the slower moving sphere an opportunity to create the necessary friction between alley surface and ball to produce his familiar hook. This change of pace should be avoided, unless proper results can not be obtained in any other way. First the bowler should select a spot a bit closer to the center of the alley than is his custom to bowl over, and see if he can get the usual results from this new spot. In the case of a slow alley, one which has a rougher surface than average, the hook will be wider than the bowler expects because of increased friction between the alley and the spinning ball. In that case a spot somewhat to the right of the ball’s usual path should be selected. By selecting a spot slightly to the right or left of the usual path, for a fast or slow alley, you do not have to change your point of delivery at the foul line. While some teachers recommend moving the delivery point closer to the center of the alley on a slow surface, and closer to the right-hand gutter on fast surface, I can not subscribe. To do this you must disrupt all the habits you have developed in laying the ball down at the precise same spot on the foul line. To my way of thinking, it is much better to select a new spot to bowl over, but retain your usual delivery spot.

The average bowler builds up his score more onspares, cleaning the alley of all the remaining pins on his second shot, than he does on strikes. Of course you must concentrate on strikes, and you will not be a high score bowler until you can get six or seven strikes in every game; but neither will you be a high or even average bowler, unless you can pick up spares regularly.

Simply stated, my rule for throwing for spares is this: Every spare leave you may have, with one exception, should be made from your original position with the ball placed on the same spot at the foul line as you place it for a strike. The exception is when you have one, two or three pins standing in the right-hand corner of the alley, that is, the six, nine, or ten pin, one of them, two of them or all three.

In this case you move to the extreme left side of the alley, delivering the ball six or eight inches in from the left side of the alley.

In every instance, select a spot when bowling for spares as you do when bowling for strikes, and bowl for that spot, not the pins. Remember, throw the same ball, straight or hook, for your spares that you throw for a strike.

When you have selected a ball that fits, have mastered your footwork and armswing, and have learned to throw a uniform, accurate ball, you will have everything necessary for a finished bowler except a bowling disposition. To be a really good bowler, you must have this, a combination of coolness, courage, ability to concentrate and smile under adverse circumstances.

When the game gets tight, take your time, keep relaxed and concentrate on doing your best. Be sure you are set before delivery, have clearly in mind what you intend to do and accept the results cheerfully. Nothing upsets your opponent more than to see that nothing upsets you.

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30 Dumb Inventions from Life Magazine

2009-10-14T15:57:10Z

I thoroughly enjoyed this gallery, especially the TV glasses and the illuminated tires.

Want to test how well you know this site? How many of the inventions in this list have I posted here in the past?

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Moving again

2009-09-29T20:28:56Z

I’m moving this week to Portland, OR and I’m not sure I’m going to get a chance to post much.

Updates to the site will be probably be sporadic or entirely absent until I get up and running again next week.

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